I live in the cornfields now.

The more I live in Indiana, the more I realized that I am a city person. I guess being surrounded by cornfields and limit access to diverse populations can reveal that to a person. I guess I can say that I am blessed that Starbucks is only a ten minute drive from my home.

The funny thing is that if you asked me over a year ago if I would see myself in Indiana...I would say "Hell no." The other funny thing is that I am now here. The third funny thing is that I am glad that I am here. The fourth funny thing is that I don't know where I'm going after this but I guess it will be somewhere unexpected.

Throughout my whole life God has moved me from California, to New Hampshire, to Texas and now to Indiana. It's been crazy. It's also kind of hard when people ask me where I'm from. I never know how to answer that question.

I hope that wherever God leads me to next will be another place of growth and experience. Life is worth to be lived out. Life is worth all the risks. Life takes us to places that we can never imagine. Life is just too short for us to stay sad. Life gives us lemons so we can make sweet lemonade to satisfy our thrist. Life is good.

This week the Residence life is doing a program on sexuality and how Christianity adn the church views it. It's called "Sex and the Cornfields" since we don't live in the city. I just thought I would throw that out there.

"you ok?"

I had four people asked me if I was ok. This shocked me. I think I am feeling ok but obviously to the world, I don't look ok. I find this a little funny because I have been feeling a little convicted of not sleeping enough hours. This has been convicting because this is one habit that is hindering my body. Taking care of my body is an act of worship. When I don't sleep, I am hurting myself. Sleep is an act of worship because my body is created for sleep which God had planned all along.

The main point I'm trying to say is that I need to sleep more. I never really admitted that out loud.

Just be

I'll just be honest here, I do struggle with homesickness. I do wish I was in Texas with the people that I love. Yet I know that I am suppose to be because I am able to live out what I am passionate about. I am making great friendships and I'm learning so much that my brain might just explode with knowledge. Despite all my love that I left behind in Texas (and other places in the world) I know that my time here at Taylor needs to be here. I have students depending on my guidance. I have classmates depending on my brains to get a group project done. I have friendships here that are expecting a joke from here. My point is no matter how homesick or cultured shock I am, I am at Taylor for the glory of the Lord.

This is my opinion but I think that a lot of Christians in the American culture struggle of the concept of being in the place that they are placed. For example, we have all these amazing gadets and social networking tools (i.e. texting, Facebooking, Twitter) that we use and abused for our own amuse. Who cares if you are going to the grocery market to buy toliet paper because your roommate is sitting on the toliet? My point is we are constantly stalking people on Twitter and Facebook that we forget of the face to face contact with have with the people in the flesh. Trust me I struggle with this concept. Somedays I hate that I have Facebook. I see pictures of long lost friends, and I get all sad and moopy. Honestly, if you think about it, it's not healthy to constantly be on facebook and Twitter. I feel like all the normal social skills that we are trained to have end up being wasting away on notifications and status updates.

We need to be where we are. We need to be intentional with the people we spend time with. We need to stop and breathe in for a minute. We need to not be afraid to express what's really going on our hearts. We need to be honest with each other. We need to be aware of those around us. We need to be loving and compassionate. We need to make the effort of intentional community.

We need to just be.

Life song

Here is my next song on my life soundtrack. It's just a good song. I guess you can put Christianity into the song if you really want to. I enjoy it because it has the acoustic in the beginning and then comes the hard rock later on. The lyrics are great as well. Everyone needs a guardian angel.

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus-Your Guardian Angel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GuX-F08fwI

No Reason

I just submitted my first research graduate paper...I think I stressed out more this past week than I did when I was an undergrad. I feel accomplished.

Why is education so important? Why are we willing to pay thousands of dollars to further our education? To get a better degree? Or for character development? A better worldview? Does our family influence our decision?...just some questions.

Right now I just would like to take the time to voice how thankful I am for the privledge to get an education. I love what I'm learning. I'm applying it everyday. I see the theories being lived out by my students. I understand how hisotry and foundations provide a basis for a deeper understanding.

I'll admit I do complain when the paper I am writing takes over my life. I do wish I get more sleep. I do not like receiving a good grade. The bottom line: I complain about school. I'm a graduate student that is studying higher education and I complain about school. Ironic. This Monday I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I posted on my Facebook status: "Melissa Lima will survive this week by the grace and strength of God." Several people commented with encouragement and positive comments. Then a very good friend of mine who is not afraid to bust out the truth wrote this: "Rejoice on every new morning that God has decided give you!" Then he proceed to express how much I rock. But that simple phrase was enough to change my attitude. I should be praising my God that I am in grad school.So what I got 3 hours of sleep last night. So what if I did not get the grade I wanted. So what that I have to spend my friend night researching about the statistics of first generation students. So what that my daily diet consists of cereal and sandwhichs that I eat in 5 minutes. Every day is the day that the Lord has made. Throughout the United States and the World millions of people do not have the opportunities that I have at Taylor Univerisity.

I have no reason to complain about a paper. I do have a reason to praise the Lord, my Savior.

life soundtrack

I have decided that I will metality start collecting songs that will be on my life soundtrack. I should state that when I do post a "life song" that it's in no particular order. Sometimes they would just pop into my head or I would hear one randomly on Pandora.com. (Oh, how I love Pandora.com...you are my contast companion through the late nights of grad school)

So this is a song. It's called Comtine d'un Autre ete (It's french). It's composed by Yann Tiersen (a french dude). I heard this song randomly on one of my friends photo slideshow she was showing to me and I loved it. Then I completely forgot about it till I saw the amazing movie Amelie (a french movie about a french girl. It's a great movie because it shows her character development. Also, it's so french, which is different from the American culture...which I like. The only problem I have is that I don't believe in love a first sight but other than that it's great. Definetly one of my top ten.) This song is off the song track and I flipped out when I heard it. It's all instrumental but it's so calming but intense at the same time.

So here it is.....Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ACZ6IyyqM&feature=related

Swept

...the Red Sox got swept by the Angels.

My heart weeps.